I lost 30lbs in 3 months and cut my cholesterol from over 350 down to 170. As mook wrote in the first post, the trick (for me) was keeping a journal of literally every bit of food or drink I put in my mouth. I started by going online and finding out what the ideal body weight for my height was. Then I looked at the RDA for calories for my height and age. Then I targeted no more than 80% of that figure in calories, daily. For heart-healthy eating, no more than 25% of my calories came from fat, and no more than 6% from saturated fat. I also counted fiber, and tried to get 20-25g per day. The low % of fat calories is what lowered my cholesterol. Losing the weight certainly helped as well. Atkins is a freaking scary diet, not particularly balanced or even nutritional. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Didn't Dr. Atkins die of heart disease, after all? Anyhow, I didn't mess with carbs or anything. The idea is simply to burn more calories than you take in. It's important to eat 3 square meals a day, or your body thinks it is starving and will burn muscle instead of fat. A typical breakfast: 1/2 cup egg beater (~2 egg) omelet (60 calories) 1/2 slice farmer john ham (75 calories) 3/4 cup frozen hash browns, fried with a bit of PAM (90 calories) 2 slices turkey bacon (60 calories) Either: 1 small bagel (100 calories), 1 english muffin (100 calories), or 2 fat free eggo frozen waffle (120 calories) A big plate of food for under 400 calories. I have a lot more recipes, including a low calorie pizza, if anyone's interested.
I'd slice a little bit of the ham to make little cubes that I put in the omelet with green pepper and onion, and a sprinkle of fat free cheese. It is a good breakfast, and it goes to show you can eat a decent amount of food and not a lot of calories. 400 for breakfast, 400 for lunch, and 800 for dinner is only 1600, quite a bit less than the RDA of 2000. 800 calories for dinner is a subway footlong (one of the 6g or less fat ones) with no cheese or mayo or oil (all the veggies tho) and a cup of frozen yogurt. Or it's 2 healthy choice frozen dinners. A cup of rice is 242 calories. I'd have rice with most dinners. It's the nutrition of the majority of the world, if you think about it (asia, etc.)
Biscuits and gravy is my BOC (Breakfast of Choice), followed closely by Eggs Benedict. Nice starchy all-american meal. The type that'll make ya grow hair on yer chest.
The diet I figured out should work for gaining weight, too. Just eat 2500 calories, or whatever, and you should gain over time.
The bolded paragraphs above: Are you recommending that more as a way to lose weight, or just in general for everyone for health reasons? I mean, you say to not eat Milk, Butter, Cheese, or white Bread, Pasta, Rice, and Potatoes, and animal products and red meat... I guess my question is, what does a typical week of eating consist of for you? Since in my world you just cut out basically everything except fruits and vegetables. And there's no way I'm only eating fruits and vegetables the rest of my life.
It really depends on what the goal is... If you are trying to lose weight because you think losing weight is healthier, that is pretty easy. Just cut back on calories, especially calorie-dense foods. If you are trying to lose weight for looks and / or athletic purposes, that is more difficult. You have to find the right nutrition and workout combination for your goals. Do NOT go the vegan or vegetarian route. You can't train hard or perform well on those diets.
I got a little hefty myself. I haven't changed my diet much, but I've been going nutty at the gym. So far so good.
Not sure if you were responding to my post? For me, I'm not trying to lose weight at all, but I'd like to eat healthier. My diet has never been that great but I've always been mildly to very active, although I have a sedentary job. 6'2'' and somewhere between 175-180, no matter what I eat or how much I work out. I'm pushing 30 though and I think I should start eating better consistently so I'm on the lookout for tips.
It's the best one, but it too kills my shoulders unless I do the breast stroke the entire time. We have a pool at our home, and I try and swim daily between April and November. It's not heated, so it gets too cold in the other months
I live in a suburb of Houston. If you don't have a pool, you are insane. Ours is a 24,000 gallon salt pool. Just enough to fit my fat ass in
Dr. Atkins slip and fell on ice, hit his head and died from those injuries. During his autopsy they discovered he had plaque buildup in his arteries. What makes Atikins scary is that the popular perception of what the diet consisted of was off base. Atkins was never supposed to be bacon and eggs for breakfast, bunless hamburger for lunch, steak and side salad drenched in blue cheese dressing for dinner. Interestingly Atkins has been recently updated, and the key change is they are using the new glycemic indexes to help dieters choose between the "good" veggies and less good veggies, and are emphasizing that Atikns is a high vegetable consumption diet. So, there you have it. Even the Atkins folks are saying, wake up America, eat more vegetables. Way more. Like more than most of you have ever eaten in your life. There are no other ways, no shortcuts, no pills, no potions - nothing. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/an-updated-guide-for-low-carb-dieters/
This clear liquid diet is fucking driving me nuts. I'm craving a juicy omelette with ham, bacon, mushroom topped with hollandaise sauce. I have to settle for Black Cherry jell-o, chicken broth and popsicles.
